Drone vs Eagle Doesn’t End Well For Drone

Forget the random redneck in their backyard blasting your Christmas present out of the air. The Dutch police are going anti-tech in their pursuit to prevent drone misuse. How? Eagles.

The birds are being trained to take down drones in emergency situations without having to use another drone and endangering first responders or civilians on the ground. Check it out in action:

Well, that’s one way to update the firmware’s ‘return home’ function.

Dutch police are working in tandem with a raptor company, Guard From Above, to teach eagles to recognize drones that drift into restricted areas. Once spotted, the eagle can fly towards the drone and snatch it out of the sky and take it to a safe location.

In addition to the hefty fine, you’re going to have some badass 4K footage of your drone being taken out by an eagle. Take the glass is half full approach.

The police unit using the eagles is looking into ways to protect the eagle’s talons against the speed of the rotors. Using the eagles will be in trials over the next few months, and the Dutch police hope to have a system in place to protect the newest members of the force.

Drone/Quadcopter pilots? Don’t fly over first responder situations. Know the rules and abide by them. An easy rule of thumb? If it seems like a bad idea, it probably is. Plus, do you want to lose your brand new drone to an eagle?

Here’s the full video on the Dutch police training with the bird:

**Story updated to reflect it was not a DJI drone in the footage**

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